Warlords of the witcher world

Chapter 9
Joy is joy, work is work, and after the feast is over, people have to get busy and start a new life in Hackland.

Especially for new immigrants, they have no time to play, the land is still waiting to be cultivated.

In a place closer to the Zaar River, Western immigrants are busy developing these excellent watered lands. They use the tools provided by the commander to dig up the soil and then sprinkle the seeds.

Most of the immigrants are the whole family, old and young, working together on the land assigned to them. The scene by the river is very lively, almost crowded, and most of the population of Fort Sazar is there.

People were working and singing songs. The northern countries have a common culture. After all, the northern humans all originated from those ships, and many things are common.

For example, the ballad they are singing now is a song that has been spread all over the north.

There is a reason for everyone's busyness. The lord's subsidy is not permanent. If you can't get some food from the land before the next harvest season, then life will be very sad.

Herme's food subsidies have decreased over time, which is also the usual practice of northern countries when they open up wasteland.

Everyone knows that there is not much food in the land that has just been reclaimed, so subsidies will be provided to allow farmers to spend the most difficult period at the beginning.

But after the initial stage, the subsidy will also decrease over time until there is no one at all.

This is also why the development cost is high. If Herme hadn't caught up with the grand strategy of the Kingdom of Aden to develop Haklan, it would have been impossible to get so many resources from King Demavi.

Yes, his development is a major national plan. The king naturally wants to get what Herme can think of. The benefits contained in the development of Hackland are huge.

Hemei is very sure, according to the normal development, it is estimated that he will stay here for three or four years, and after the environment is set up, the king will be granted new nobles.

On the one hand, the arrival of the new nobleman is to promote the development of Harkland, and on the other hand, it is to share power from him and prevent his family from dominating.

Although he has the title of Harkland Commander, this title is definitely not useful to those newly appointed nobles.

But that was a normal situation, and Herme knew very well that the Second Northern War would break out in four years, so he could monopolize Hackland's resources for a long time.

And if he can't come up with anything for such a long time, he doesn't need to think about fighting for hegemony in the north. He can honestly live his life in Hakland.

It would be nice to live a lifetime in Hackland, the land was vast and beautiful, but Herme would not make this choice until the last moment.

While the farmers were busy, the merchants were also busy, selling goods brought from the west in the market, which were very sought-after on the grasslands.

Sazaburg has never been short of Cossacks and Haklans, and they will buy these goods immediately, which is why merchants began to go here less than half a year after the road to Hakland was discovered.

And from these merchants, Herme earned a good amount of trade tax, but he thinks the number of merchants is still too small.

Not to mention the entire Hackland market, they can't even meet the needs of their own "territory".

But the most profitable one is Hemei. Compared with private businessmen, it is not too convenient for him to transport goods with his official identity, and he also has the tax exemption of King De Mawei.

Some of these commodities will be sold to the loyal Cossack villages first, and the other part will be sold as they please. Fort Saza has no shortage of buyers.

The dwarf craftsmen continued to build various buildings inside and outside the city, and they constituted the main force of the construction workers in Fort Sazar.

Some dwarves also work in blacksmithing, and the tools and weapons they make can fetch a good price.

The ironware produced in the land of Hackland is relatively inferior. Traditionally, high-quality ironware comes from Serikania in the south, the country that worships dragons. Niah weapons are very difficult.

Now that the Adian people come to import ironware, the locals will naturally buy it like crazy.

But the only problem is that what Herme mainly gets is not gold and silver.

In most cases, the Haklans gave livestock, which is a common resource for Haklan, while the Cossacks gave furs, which was a common resource among them.

Herme had to transport all these things back to Aedirn before they could be exchanged for gold and silver. Fortunately, his official status allowed him to avoid heavy taxes.

Otherwise, he would be like those merchants who would have to pay a heavy tax of one-fifth of the total value after bringing these goods back.

It has to be said that King Demavi's vision is very vicious. He saw the huge price difference in Hackland's trade, so he naturally took this opportunity to get more resources.

While embracing gold and silver through trade, Herme did not forget to strengthen his defenses.

After all, on the grassland, robbery is always considered the first choice.

In order to trade with Sazaburg before, the powerful atamans nearby also fought each other to fight for the monopoly trade with Sazaburg.

It's just because everyone's power is similar, because no one can do anything to anyone.

The idea of ​​​​attacking Sazarburg is also because everyone is staring at it but no one dares to practice it. No one wants to be used as a gunman. The continuous struggle on the grassland makes this kind of thing happen. It also makes every grassland Warlords are wary of their neighbors.

But it is difficult to stop wolves from eating meat, and sooner or later someone will have to do it.

Hemei is also aware of this, but there is a saying that there is only a thousand days to be a thief, not a thousand days to defend against a thief. Before those guys do it, all I can do is to increase the border posts, so that the enemy will attack Saza as soon as possible. Fort conveys information.

That's why Herme inspected the defense and material reserves of Fort Sazar from time to time, supervised the training of the soldiers under his command, and often concentrated the men in Fort Sazar for militia training.

In addition, he is still vigorously recruiting the Cossacks and Haklans on the grassland. There are always armed wandering warriors here. They sell their force to make a living. Herme now needs to expand his military power.

But what these warriors value is reputation. Hemei can be said to be a typical unknown person on the grassland. Where there are any warriors who come to join him, there are many people who come to eat and drink.

But Hemei still accepted them. No matter what, what he needs most now is manpower.

These people didn't care about giving their allegiance to the nobleman Herme, or that's how it was on the grasslands, giving allegiance to someone wasn't allegiance, there was no objection at all.

Of course, for Herme, the most important thing is to make more Cossack villages submit to the rule of Sazaburg and strengthen the obedience of the surrendered villages.

Meeting the headmen and elders of various villages is indispensable for this. Taking advantage of the opportunity of these people coming to pay homage to him, the titular lord, Hemei had a good talk with them.

Then he understood why Dunwa found it troublesome to deal with this group of people. After smelling all his demands, these chiefs and elders immediately began to ask for prices, which made Herme extremely annoyed.

If you want them to pay more, you have to pay more supplies. The residents of Hackland are so realistic.

However, they also expressed that they would fight for Herme. This is something that has been agreed. They will fulfill their obligations and will bring men to help when they receive the call from Fort Sazar.

In this regard, the residents of Hackland are still very simple, at least better than those tricky people in the north, but I think this is also because of their better living environment.

In this piece of hills and forests, the Cossacks can barely survive by collecting without farming, which is why the struggle between them has always maintained a bottom line of death.

Because although the loser fails, he can still barely survive, so don't cut the grass and root out the roots. You may encounter such a situation in the future, so everyone should be merciful.

So they can spend more time honing their martial arts, which is the most important thing for survival in Hackland.

Therefore, Hemei still got some things, such as getting these villages to agree to pay some food to Fort Sazar, but the amount was very poor, but it was better than nothing before.

In this situation, Herme is also very helpless. In the final analysis, his current strength is relatively weak, and he has a great demand for local forces, so he can only use this method to gain allegiance.

If it weren't for the huge profits that trade could bring, Herme wouldn't be able to stay here for long.

"Hey, I deserve to be a lord. I really don't look like a lord. Instead, I look like an official who has no guts to offend anyone."

He uttered the above wail after another verbal confrontation with a Cossack chieftain, like quarreling village women in a market place.

"The grassland respects strength, Commander Herme. Only strength can make you respected. Now the people in your territory only regard you as a projection of the power of the Kingdom of Aden, and they have no respect for you. , it can be said that if you want to do something, you must first gain a reputation on the grassland."

Marondo said that now this young man who knows Harkland Grassland has become his captain of the guard, handling various affairs by Herme's side.

Regarding the fact that he called Herme the Commander, it was because Herme liked the vain title of Harkland Commander. Compared with the title of baron, Herme preferred people to call him the Commander. The people below naturally liked the ruler and called him for the command.

"Fame, yes, fame."

Herme chanted this word, and the confusion and depression in his voice became less and less. He thought of something, how could he forget the theme of this world.

"I can no longer just stay in this main castle, there are still tasks waiting for us outside."

After finding the target, Herme immediately started to act. He sent envoys to each village to find out if there were any monsters that needed to be dealt with.

Yes, monsters, the residents of this world have always been troubled by various monsters. After all, the novel carrying this world view is called the Demon Hunter.

And there are always a lot of monsters on the Harkland Grassland, and since there are very few demon hunters here, the task of killing monsters falls on the warriors.

Hunting monsters is regarded as an honor by everyone, and none of the powerful Hackland rulers in history has hunted monsters.

And after checking the territory, I found that there are indeed many monsters, such as where there are evil ghosts, where there are ghouls, and where there are Qiqimo and Andraeg raging, even if they are Cossacks. Tough, all they can do is stay away from the places where these monsters haunt.

After all, there are plenty of forest resources. If it doesn’t work here, it’s over if you change places. It’s nothing more than walking more, and you don’t need to lose the manpower in the village. But people must still be disgusted by the existence of monsters.

Because some monsters will hide and actively hunt and kill humans, and humans are likely to walk into the monster's lair without knowing it.

And this is really hard to know. I was shocked when I saw it. The number of monsters on the territory is really quite a lot.

Now that everyone knew where there were monsters, Herme began to slay demons. Starting from Fort Sazar, he led an army to hunt down the discovered monsters.

Heme organized a team of 40 people. The essence of Fort Sazar is here, and there are also a few dwarves who participated in the cleaning in Mahakam.

The so-called general cleaning is the Mahakam dwarves' sweeping of them when the ice and snow melted and monsters appeared. Therefore, the dwarves have rich experience in dealing with monsters.

Drawing on the experience of the dwarves, Herme and the others used flames, swords, and crossbow arrows to fight against monsters. Through good cooperation, they can often easily destroy monsters.

After all, this is no longer the era when humans just landed. Although the density of monsters in Harkland is more exaggerated than in the north, the situation is just like that, and it cannot stop the organized hunting team.

Every time they return to the city, Herme and the others will bring back the corpse of the monster and show off their feats to everyone.

In the beginning, not many people cared about their actions, because at that time they only brought back weak monsters like evil ghosts, and they had suffered casualties because of it.

At that time, Herme was still ridiculed, "The big knight wore armor to kill those little evil spirits, but unfortunately the car overturned, and people died."

But then Herme brought back monsters such as Andraeg and ghouls, and everyone's opinions changed.

Those Cossacks who dismissed Herme's behavior also paid attention to his actions. As the natives of this land, they knew the danger of these monsters very well.

Gradually, Cossacks began to join his team to hunt monsters together, and the number of Herme's hunting team also doubled unconsciously, becoming a large team of hundreds of people.

In the battle, Heme always stood at the front line to command, and even participated in the battle in person, which left a deep impression on the Cossacks.

With the spread of these impressions, the Cossacks' attitude towards Heme also quietly changed.

With a team of [-] people, Heme can also solve many lairs and monsters that cannot be solved by the Cossack village alone or are unwilling to pay the price, and eradicate the problems that have plagued people for a long time.

Therefore, he won the gratitude and love of the people, and gradually, Herme's hunting team was welcomed by the village wherever they went.

He also showed results in doing so. Gradually, new Cossack villages defected to Fort Sazar and asked for asylum belonging to Fort Sazar.

Herme's reputation in the territory has risen, and people's perception of him is no longer an agent of the Kingdom of Aedirn, but a brave and fearless warrior.

Warrior, this is the name of the brave in the Cossack society. The Cossack warrior song tells their stories, and Heme has also become a member of the warrior song.

In order to gain such a reputation, he has paid a lot. The rumors of monsters are not reliable at all times. Many times, Herme and the others have to run away.

But the commander is not upset, for him, this is also an opportunity, a chance to understand his own territory, and it is worthwhile to run empty.

It is true that Herme gained a lot from running around during this period of time, which benefited him a lot.

More than fame, he knew the topography of the territory and saw the population and wealth of each village.

Most importantly, people are still more willing to obey the ruler who often appears in front of them, rather than the distant lord, which is especially obvious in Cossack society.

Now that Heme is dangling in front of them, solving problems for them, they will naturally support Herme. In the eyes of many people, Heme is already their ataman.

Sazarburg didn't have any problems because of his running around. There are not many government affairs in this city, and he can usually solve them.

As for those troublesome trifles, the dwarf Dunvar and the chief guard Jerry took care of them.

The residents of Sazaburg were also very proud to see the corpses of the monsters brought back by their leader. Their ruler was a good fighter, and only such people could lead them to survive here.

After living here, the immigrants also understand that this is not a land where they can live easily, so their dependence on Herme is becoming stronger and stronger, and they also attach importance to martial arts training.

And the reduction of monsters is also good for them. Every northern resident understands the importance of eliminating monsters. The fewer monsters, the safer the settlement.

Now every boy in Sazarburg is eager to join Hemei's hunting team. In their view, this is the hero they want to be in the future.

But they only saw the hunter who returned with glory, they would not see the casualties of the hunting party, even if they saw it, they thought that they could not be the dead one, but child, that's it.

As for the monster corpses brought back, Herme sold them to merchants in exchange for the coins she desperately needed.

Herme's demand for coins is still very high, mainly because he needs money to attract immigrants in Yadian. Although the king promised to send people, he can't just hang himself with this rope.

Merchants are also willing to buy these monster corpses, and alchemists and warlocks are happy to bid for these monsters, so they don't have to worry about the market at all, even under the name of Harkland's monsters, these can be sold at a higher price.

As Herme's monsters hunted, unknowingly, he basically wiped out the obvious monster lairs on the territory, and the monsters were basically in places that were difficult to go to.

Herme doesn't plan to go to those places either. Monsters are easy to find because they are close to human settlements, and hard to find means they are far away from human settlements. Monsters far away from settlements will not harm humans very much, so why would he go after them? kill those guys.

Herme was thinking about whether to send someone to find a demon hunter and sign a long-term contract with him to deal with the monsters on the territory.

After all, professionals are good at solving monsters. Now that he has obtained what he wants through hunting demons, if he wants to go further, he has to find big monsters, but that's not easy to find.

So leave these jobs to professionals, even if you pay for it yourself, you can still earn your reputation.

(End of this chapter)